Confessions of a Country Parson | Hacker News Reader

Confessions of a Country Parson

unherd.com

As an eighteenth-centuryist by training and an Anglican priest by vocation, I am sorry to say I had never run across Fr. Woodforde’s diary. But I have dutifully ordered a copy and look forward to digging into it.

I did find it interesting to note that he “noted down prayers for the recently deceased.” This certainly would not have been a feature of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer which he would have used, and, in fact, many of the English reformers had taken great pains to try to stamp out prayers for the dead. But here is a country parson in what is generally considered one of the low points of the English Church praying for the dead. Guess it goes to show that, regardless of what the official position may be on such matters, there is still a residual observance of such forms of obsequy. (And it’s worth noting that the vast majority of BCPs have come around on that question and have re-introduced prayers for the dead.)

For anyone interested in the observances of another country priest, I highly recommend Eamon Duffy’s Voices of Morebath, a diary of a priest who recorded his life before the Reformation, then through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and (IIRC) into the reign of Elizabeth. It’s a fascinating account of a priest trying to do his best amidst the “changes and chances” of those turbulent times. Fascinating reading.

Thanks for this perspective. I obviously need to deal with one of the most important questions raised by this essay: what is a “pert and saucy“ servant in the good parson’s context? I’m pretty sure my mental image of Kate Beckinsale playing the part in an appropriate outfit isn’t the same as yours ;)

Lol, I would doubt Parson Woodforde’s maid resembled Kate Beckinsale—either in an appropriate or an inappropriate outfit. ;) My guess is he probably meant she was a little mouthy and stubborn for his standard of a servant. Both of those terms generally meant someone who was impudent, although “saucy” at the time did have connotations of lasciviousness. So, although he was a bachelor and a priest, it’s not to say that his use of the term would have been entirely angelic, haha.

Nice to know there might have been some ambiguity! I was sure you’d be describing my grammar school teacher Mrs Hedgecock.

I shall continue envisioning Kate in this role.

If you want even older Norfolk stuff, there's the Paston Letters from the 15th century: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43348

He’s an excellent follow on mastodon (and Twitter)

https://mastodon.social/@parsonjameswoodforde

https://twitter.com/JamesWoodforde1

If you like following historical diaries, @samuelpepys is hard to beat.

From the closing thoughts:

> And yet I cannot help but wonder what we have given up in exchange for our current world.

Of course, in the 18th century you wouldn't be an Oxford educated parson with the living of a parsonage and and a niece for a housekeeper and maids ands other servants - you'd be a servant yourself. If you're lucky.

> Woodforde took a Hobbitish pleasure in recording the fare, an endless procession of meats and desserts designed to honour guests as well as feed them.

Sounds like 2020's Instagram feed.

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